Tell you how to change IP by comparing different methods and different services: proxy software, web proxy, http proxy, VPN, socks proxy and SSH proxy.

What is IP address and how to change IP address? An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a numerical way to identify your computer on Internet. Websites can know much information by your IP address. For example, from your IP address, we can know your country.

How to Change IP Address

People change IP address to avoid online bans and protect online privacy. How to change IP address? Before trying any other methods to change your IP address, try turning off your Cable/DSL modem for five minutes. In many cases this will change your IP address.

But that method can only change your IP address slightly within a small range. How to change IP address to another country? Here are some methods to change IP address completely to another one.

My IP Hide

There are many kinds of proxy software can help you to change IP. Among them we recommend My IP Hide which supports both Windows and Mac. It uses enhanced proxy technology with encrypted connection. It’s much faster than VPN and SSH proxy. With My IP Hide you can completely change IP address while watch youtube smoothly.

It’s easy to use it. Just keep My IP Hide (MIH) running when you surf the Internet. If you exit or disable MIH, you will use direct connection. For Opera, you need to manually set its proxy option to direct connection.

Cons: My IP Hide only support browsers. If you want all your programs go through the encrypted connection, you will need a VPN account.

Http Proxy

All the browsers (chrome, firefox, ie, opera, safari and others) support the proxy option. When you set a proxy in browser, the proxy will fetch the web pages for your browser. The websites regard the IP of proxy as your IP so it cannot trace your real IP. Thus the proxy help you to change IP address.

How to use http proxy in browser? You can manually set the proxy option. We recommend using Elite Proxy Switcher to set the proxy for your browser. The free edition is enough for you.

Where to get http proxy? You can get some free proxies from our free proxy list. You can also buy proxy from us. Our proxy list is checked and updated every hour.

Cons: The public http proxies are unstable because they die fast. Http proxies are suitable for the users who need a lot of IP addresses but use each IP address for only several hours.

VPN

VPN is short for Virtual Private Network. It uses strong encryption to ensure that only authorized users can access the network and that the data cannot be intercepted. It’s usually used to securely connect the branch offices of an organization to its head office network through the public Internet. Now many VPN vendors open this service to public. You can use it to change IP. We recommend the VPN service of Hide My Ass. It has many IP addresses that you can choose from.

Cons: There are two problems of VPN. (1) If you use VPN, all the programs will use the VPN connection. You can not choose which program use VPN and which use direct connection. (2) Because of the strong encryption, VPN is much slower than direct connection. Here is a detailed comparison between the Hide My Ass VPN and My IP Hide.

Web Proxy

Web proxy is the easiest way to change IP. Web proxy is a website with an URL bar. Just input the URL of blocked site into that bar and click the “Surf” button. Web proxy will fetch the web page for you showing on its own site.

The problem is that web proxy doesn’t support all the sites. It uses a plugin to support youtube. But it can’t support hulu or pinterest. Another problem is the security issue. If you use web proxy to visit secure sites (ex. bank or paypal), your information may be intercepted.

Socks Proxy

Socks proxy is similar to http proxy. The difference is that socks support all the Internet protocols (such as http, ftp and voip) while http proxy only support http. So it supports more programs besides browser. It supports skype, thunderbird, filezilla, mIRC and any program/game that has a socks proxy option.

SSH Proxy

SSH proxy is encrypted socks proxy. SSH is short for Secure SHell. SSH protocol is usually used to control a Linux server via a secure channel. Some program (Putty or MyEnTunnel) can convert SSH connection into encrypted socks proxy service. The configuration is a bit difficult for non-technical personnel.

With SSH proxy you can completely change IP. The problem is that the speed of SSH proxy is slow because of the strong encryption. There are few SSH proxy vendors but you can find some free SSH proxy here.

A post about the difference between socks proxy and HTTP proxy, how to get, check and use socks proxy or HTTP proxy.

There are two types of proxy, socks proxy and HTTP proxy. When we say “proxy” or “proxy server” without the type, we are referring to HTTP proxy.

HTTP Proxy

The most proxies we find on Internet are HTTP proxy. HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol which is used in surfing. It means HTTP proxy is used for surfing in browsers.

HTTP proxy may be configured to either reveal or hide the end user’s IP address, depending on the administrator’s preference. Proxy Anonymity is determined by whether or not the proxy reveal your real IP address.

There are three levels of HTTP proxy according the anonymity.

High Anonymous Proxy (Level 1): The web server can’t detect whether you are using a proxy by the information your browser sent.Anonymous Proxy (Level 2): The web server knows that you are probably using a proxy, but it can’t detect your real IP.Transparent Proxy (Level 3): The web server knows that you are using a proxy and it can also detect your real IP address.

Socks Proxy

Socks proxy is versatile proxy for all your Internet usage while the HTTP proxy can only be used for surfing. You can use socks proxy to send email, transfer files, chat online, play games as well as surf websites.

There are two versions of socks proxy: version 4 and 5, as known as socks4 and socks5. Socks5 supports UDP (Skype needs it), name resolution and authentication while socks4 not. In most cases, either socks4 or socks5 proxy is applicable.

Difference between Socks and HTTP Proxy

Socks proxy supports high anonymity and HTTPS (secure HTTP) naturally. All the socks proxies are highly anonymous. Every socks proxy support HTTPS websites (such as Paypal). You can hardly find HTTP proxies supporting both high anonymity and HTTPS.

There are two shortcomings of socks proxies. 1) Socks proxies are much less than HTTP proxies. 2) Less programs support socks proxy than HTTP proxy.

Use Socks Proxy and HTTP Proxy

Most browsers support both socks proxy and HTTP proxy. Double click the socks proxy or HTTP proxy in Socks Proxy Checker or Elite Proxy Switcher to set it as the active proxy for your browsers (IE, Chrome and Firefox). Please read this post if you want to use socks proxy in other programs beside browsers.

There are 2 types of proxy, public proxy and private proxy. Public proxy is open to public usage. Private proxy is only open to paid users.

There are two types of proxy, public proxy and private proxy. Public proxy is open to public usage. Private proxy is only open to paid users.

Public Proxy

Public proxy as known as open proxy is open to public usage. Every one can use it. Because of the lack of access control, the public proxy may be used by too many people. It makes the public proxy stop working if the number of users exceeds its capability. If a public proxy can be found easily on the Internet, it will die very fast. However it will work again when less people use it. Thus public proxy is usually unstable.

Though public proxy can usually keep working for only several hours, it has its advantages. You can find and use them for free. There are lots of public proxies on the Internet. You can use them to change your IP frequently. If you don’t know how to find them by yourself, you can buy our checked public proxy list. We update our public proxy list every day and check them from time to time. It ensures there are enough working proxies in the list.

Private Proxy

Private proxy is only open to paid users. You need to pay for the private proxy. It has good uptime. You usually need to input username and passord to use private proxy. The private proxy vendors control how long you can use their private proxy.

Is proxy safe to use? Is there a way to avoid giving away sensitive information to the proxy? This article answers those questions.

Question: Is proxy safe to use?

I just wanted to find out if proxy’s are safe. I mean can proxy’s record passwords etc when someone is surfing through them. Or can the owner place a sniffer and sniff out the content or hijack the connection.

Is there a way to avoid giving away sensitive information to the proxy or at least encrypting the information. Are there any tutorials on how to find proxies and use them from start to finish with security in mind. Thanks

Answer: It will be safe if you use a http proxy (IP:Port proxy) to access a secure (https://) website instead of a non-encrypted (http://) website. Secure websites such as PayPal use the encrypted (SSL/HTTPS) connections between the user and its server. Thus no one can know the sensitive data you sent or received.

For non-encrypted websites, it all depends on the proxy administrators. They are able to know the information you send and receive through the proxy. However most proxies won’t record or monitor your traffic. They only transmit and receive data for you.

If you are using a web proxy, your information may be intercepted even if you are accessing a secure website.

Private proxy is usually safer than public proxy. It’s because the private proxy providers would lose their business if they stole the information of the users. You can try our safe proxy service. It encrypts the traffic to improve the security of your online activities.

Question: Proxy Safe and Internet Service Provider

I know that when I am using a proxy, my IP address is modified. But what is the configuration between my PC, my Internet Supplier and the proxy and the web.

In the first situation the web don’t know me, but my supplier know what I am doing. In the second one, how is it possible to connect to the proxy without using first my internet supplier.

Answer: PC Internet Service Provider Proxy Web Server Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) knows what you are doing on the Internet.

Question: That means that my ISP know that I’m using uTorrent and I’m loading Torrents… That means It is not safe? Where is the anonymity and security?

Is there any protection (encryption for example) for IP address and online privacy?

Answer: In fact your ISP doesn’t know you are using uTorrent. They can only see you receive many data packets from different IPs and send data to them meanwhile. So ISP can guess you are using a P2P software.

ISP usually won’t monitor its users’ activity because there is huge amount of data to analyze.

Most serious websites such as PayPal use the encrypted (SSL/HTTPS) connections between the user and its server. Thus no one can know the sensitive data you sent or received.

Question: Is proxy safe from tracers?

Is it possible for my real IP to be hidden totally from others if I use a proxy. I’m not too sure what it does but when i use it and run browser and check my IP, my IP is changed. Does this mean i am safe from anyone who wants to trace my location?

Answer: You can use the proxy to surf find-ip.net to check whether it’s anonymous. If the proxy is anonymous, you are safe from ordinary tracers. But I’m not sure whether it’s safe if your tracer is FBI. As they have the time, energy and resources to find you.

Question: I am scared that the owner of the proxy server will steal my ID and PW of the game I play. Is it possible that somebody see my ID and PW through a proxy?

Answer: If the game program uses the encrypted connections, it’s usually safe. Otherwise the administrator of the proxy server is able to know your username and password.

Web proxy has encryption functions but it can’t support many sites. HTTP proxy is faster than web proxy and support all the sites. But it has no encryption.

Web proxy and HTTP proxy are two common methods for anonymously browsing. Many people use them to hide their real IP and protect online privacy. However, which one is faster, more reliable and better for surfing?

Web Proxy

Web proxy is the easiest way to hide IP. Web proxy is a website with a address bar. Just input the URL of blocked site into that bar and click the “Surf” button. Web proxy will fetch the web page for you showing on its own site. You can try our web proxy here.

HTTP Proxy

HTTP proxy is a IP:Port pair (ex. 23.145.98.5:3128). All the browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari and others) support the proxy option. When you set a proxy in browser, the proxy will fetch the web pages for your browser. The websites regard the IP of proxy as your IP so it cannot trace your real IP.

Proxy Compatibility

Web proxy has problems with flash and javascript. With some special code, web proxy manages to support youtube. But it can’t support hulu and other video websites. If a website uses javascript heavily, web proxy can’t support it usually.

For that reason, web proxy have to redirect users to the mobile/lite version of facebook, twitter, gmail, hotmail and yahoo mail. Web proxy can’t support the full functions of them.

In contrast, HTTP proxy supports all the websites perfectly. It’s because HTTP proxy is the built-in function of browser while web proxy is a website to simulate a proxy server.

Loading Speed

Web proxy needs to rewrite all the links of pages. It parses the html, style and script files of pages then rewrites all the links. It takes much time to do that. HTTP proxy doesn’t modify the pages. It only fetches pages for browser so it’s much faster than web proxy.

Moreover web proxy is usually written in PHP or CGI which is slower than C/C++. Most HTTP proxy is written in C/C++ so it’s faster.

Encryption

HTTP proxy only fetches the pages for browser. It can’t modify the pages so it can’t encrypt the traffic. In contrast, web proxy can encrypt the URLs as well as the pages. There may be problem if you enable page encryption. With URL encryption, you can bypass most firewalls.

Enhanced Proxy

HTTP proxy is faster than web proxy and compatible with all the websites. But it doesn’t have encryption function so it can’t bypass the firewall with content filtering.

Our service My IP Hide is a enhanced proxy service. It adds the encryption function into HTTP proxy service. It can set the proxy options of your browser automatically. You need not to do any settings for your browser. My IP Hide has all the advantages of web proxy and HTTP proxy. It’s the best method for anonymously surfing.

Answer: You can run My IP Hide on your Mac/Windows computer. Then use your PS3 (PlayStation 3) to connect to My IP Hide.

1) To do that your PS3 and computer should be in the same LAN (WiFi). 2) Click the “Setting” button on My IP Hide 3) Go to the “Misc” Tab of the setting dialog 4) You will see a Proxy IP (Server) and Port in that Tab

5) Set that proxy IP (server) and port in your PS3

Press the “Right” button all the way until you see the “Proxy Server” option. Choose “Use” and click the “X” button.

6) When you exit My IP Hide on your computer, you should set your PS3 to use direct connection. Otherwise it can’t open any web pages.